


It's okay because of her

by pseudophoenix



Category: The Underland Chronicles - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Fic Exchange, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 12:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5497430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudophoenix/pseuds/pseudophoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TUC Fic Exchange 2015 - Prompt 1: "Gregor and Luxa on the farm in Virginia, there's horses and flower crowns and fluff (and maybe some fireflies too)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's okay because of her

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lizzallen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzallen/gifts).



> Gahhh this was so fun to write! Props to whoever put in this prompt, it's so cute! Happy holidays to everyone & I hope you enjoy.

It’s the first warm day of the year. Gregor doesn’t know what day it is because keeping track of time has been hard ever since the Underland. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t get used to the sun being a way to tell time again.

Actually, it’s been warm for a couple days now, he recalls. Except, it’s done nothing but rain and rain. Gregor’s mother says it’s like spring wringing out the last of its clouds and giving way to summer. Gregor likes that.

The rain has made everything hot and sticky and humid, but that’s how Virginia is. Besides, the rain doesn’t bother Luxa, because she’s never seen it before. So, the rain doesn’t bother Gregor either. The first day it rained instead of snowed this year, Gregor stood outside in the cold for hours watching Luxa dance in the long dirt driveway with her arms out, twirling like a human weathervane. She splashed in puddles at first, like a little kid, and Boots came out to join her, but soon everyone went in except for Luxa and Gregor.

Gregor’s family mostly stays out of the two thirteen-year-olds’ way. They seem to understand why the concept of time doesn’t matter to them anymore, and let them do almost whatever they like. That’s why, when Gregor asks his father for two flashlights and permission to be out of the house a little after dark, Lee says yes, just be careful.

So it’s the first warm, non-rainy day this year in Virginia. Luxa is sitting on the little wooden bench outside the barn, watching the sun set like she has every single night, rain or shine, since she came to the surface world in early January. Gregor walks up on light feet out of instinct before he remembers he doesn’t have to do that anymore. In fact, he knows how horrible it is to be snuck up on. So he drags his feet and sends some gravel flying to let Luxa know there’s someone here.

She turns her head to see who it is but Gregor has a feeling she knows his footsteps by now. They give each other smiles as they both acknowledge this silently.

She’s got a sunburn across her nose. She’s always got a sunburn somewhere on her face. Gregor’s mom keeps saying that can’t be good for her skin but Luxa’s never had sunburns before so it doesn’t matter to her that it hurts whenever she has to touch her face.

Gregor sits down next to Luxa and presents her with one of the flashlights. “Want to go out in the field tonight?”

“I have been in the field before,” she states, though the look on her face says that she knows there’s something special in store.

“Not on a night like this you haven’t,” Gregor tells her.

“Of course,” she figures. “No night in the Overland is like any other.”

“Glad you’ve got it figured out,” he says.

They don’t have to say anything more. They get up together and start walking towards the field of tall, uneven grass that used to scare the two of them half to death with all the shadows it makes as the sun sets. They’ve since gotten used to it. Luxa likes the shapes the shadows make now. She runs a hand over the tops of the tall grass blades and doesn’t care about the burrs sticking to the cuffs of her pants legs, so Gregor doesn’t care either.

They ride horses out here sometimes. Another thing that used to scare Luxa but she’s since come to love. She talks to the horses for hours a day now, taking care of them. Gregor sometimes jokes with her,  _ You know, these ones won’t talk back to you. _

There are mosquitos floating around in clouds everywhere around the field, but it doesn’t matter, because Luxa’s never seen them before. At least, not the small ones. She appropriately calls them  _ buzzers, _ and Gregor tries not to think about how big the Underland mosquitos must be.

Out here, wildflowers are already starting to bloom. Before they close up shop for the night, Gregor reaches down and picks a couple while they walk. Luxa doesn’t realize what he’s doing until he has a handful of dandelions and little violets and thin strands of ground ivy with tiny blue flowers clinging to them.

The sun is dipping low beneath the horizon line and Luxa finally takes her eyes off of it when Gregor stops and sits down. She follows suit and settles down next to him. They face the setting sun, and can just barely see over the tops of the plants here. They bat away the mosquitos and Luxa asks, “Why have you torn up the flowers?”

“Don’t worry,” he assures her. “There are a million of these growing around.”

Luxa still eyes him skeptically, like she doesn’t believe him. Of course, she’s never seen flowers grow so abundantly like these before. Also, these flowers don’t attack you if you get too close. Gregor makes a mental note that he knows he’ll probably forget before tomorrow to ask his dad to take them to the arboretum in the city sometime.

The light has almost completely faded, and Gregor clicks on his flashlight. Luxa copies him and they set their flashlights on the ground together. Gregor goes about twisting his flowers together into a questionable braid. His hands shake in the light of the flashlight, and he thinks about how much easier this seemed to be in elementary school on the playground when the teacher taught all the kids how to make flower crowns. Luxa watches him and soon she takes a few of the dandelions and copies his movements, if not with more steady hands. But, she’s always been more precise and meticulous than him.

She finishes her dandelion chain before him, in fact, and figures out how to close the circle on her own. She waits patiently for him to finish his ring of tiny blue and purple blossoms. In the dark, Luxa watches him like a ghost. A ghost with a sunburn.

Gregor laughs and places his crown that already seems to be falling apart in places over her silver hair, which has grown out to brush her shoulders now. Luxa presents him, in turn, with her dandelion crown, and he balances it carefully atop his messy mound of brown curls. It would be a pain to comb out all the little yellow bits of dandelion later, but it doesn’t matter because Luxa is smiling.

“Very pretty,” she says, reaching up to shove the flower crown back a little on her head just like she used to do with the thin gold band of a crown she used to wear in the Underland.

“I agree,” Gregor tells her.

She ignores the compliment and instead says, “I think I like this crown better than my old one.”

“You like everything in the Overland better,” Gregor teases. “Speaking of that, watch this.”

He reaches out and clicks off the flashlights. The two of them inch closer to each other almost subconsciously and touch their hands together lightly. Gregor tells his heart to slow down, it’s just regular darkness, not cave darkness.  _ Look, _ he commands himself.  _ There’s the moon. There’s the stars. They won’t go away. _

Luxa settles next to him and their shoulders press together. She’s got her head turned up to the stars. She’s always got her face turned up to the sky. No wonder she’s always got a sunburn. She’s even more ghostly in the moonlight, and Gregor entwines his fingers in hers to make sure she’s still really there.

Soon, what he’s waiting for comes out. At first, he can only spot a couple far off in the distance, blinking their tiny lights. Luxa spots them too, and gasps a little. Soon, more light up nearer to them. Gregor watches her face as she realizes what they are.

“Shiners,” she says. “But, they are so small and... and...”

“Quiet?” Gregor asks.

She laughs softly, like she’s afraid she’ll drive them off if she’s too loud. “Yes. These are nice and quiet. What do you call them, again?”

“Fireflies,” he replies. “Or lightning bugs, depending on where you’re from.”

“Fire and lightning,” Luxa says, frowning. Her first thunderstorm was an adventure all its own.

“They’re just names,” Gregor assures her. “Look.” He reaches up and gently catches one in his palm. He brings it down and opens his hand. The bug crawls over his lifeline slowly, ticking his skin. It lights up cheerfully and goes out once more before taking off from Gregor’s thumb. Luxa finds another and gently takes it in her hand as Gregor did. After she lets it fly off again, Gregor frowns.

“What?” she asks him, a little worried.

“I forgot a jar to keep some in,” he comments, a little disappointed in himself. When Luxa still doesn’t understand, he explains. “You can poke holes in the top of a jar and make a little lantern out of them.”

She kisses him softly until he’s smiling again. “Tomorrow night,” she says, “I’ll be sure to remind you.”

“Thanks,” he tells her sincerely.

They sit in the dark with the flashlights off and watch the fireflies drift around the field laid out in front of them, like the stars have come down from the sky to dance among the wildflowers.

After an amount of time that Gregor would never be able to guess at, they got up, turned on the flashlights again, and started walking back, hand in hand.

It’s okay that Gregor forgot a jar. It’s okay that the flower crowns will be wilting by tomorrow. It’s okay that they’ll have to painstakingly pick the burrs out of their clothes before going inside. It’s okay that he can’t remember what day of the week it is. It’s okay that Gregor’s heart still races when he’s in the dark. It’s okay because she’s holding his hand.


End file.
